For Leon's 40th last year, he chose to make it a year of
half-marathons and he completed three: US-Canada International Half; Chicago Half;
and Great Lakes Weekend of Races. For mine this year, I chose for us to
visit Machu Picchu.
I was told
by several people that it will be an awesome experience and we must book early
to hike the Inca Trail. The common
opinion in our circles seem to be that hiking is the only way to go. While
we enjoy the outdoors, we don't crave the hiking. Our mates from Aussie
have the right idea for outdoor experience for when we next visit them in Brissy
- glamping, i.e camping glamorous style.
There's got
to be a different way to visit Machu Picchu, and of course there is. An article at the Travel+Leisure site provided the outline of our adventure.
So with some, not thorough, planning, we visited Peru from April 10 to
20. Here’s the trip overview:
- April 10: Travel to Lima, Peru
- April 11 – 13: Weekend in Lima
- April 13: Fly from Lima to Cusco
- April 14: Train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes (also known as Machu Picchu Pueblo); visit Machu Picchu museum
- April 15: Visit Machu Picchu
- April 16: Hike to a waterfall; train to Cusco
- April 17: Sacred Valley day tour from Cusco
- April 18: Return to Lima, dine at a top restaurant (Astrid & Gaston), and then catch overnight flight back to U.S.
I wasn’t ignoring the advice of the Travel+Leisure article to head
straight to Aguas Calientes to acclimatize to the higher altitude. Flight
connections were such that we needed to do an overnight in Cusco. If you
can find a better option, do share.
Logistics
Firstly, air tickets to Lima, Peru from the US are oddly priced...at
least to me. The day I bought our Delta tickets online, business class
travel was just a couple of hundred dollars more than coach. Of course I
bought business class tickets. For a while, I thought I snagged a serious
deal. Then I realized that it was a good deal but business class tickets
to Peru don't typically cross $2,000 return.
Between Lima and Cusco, we flew by LAN – my Argentine pal says that’s
a great airline, plus they have regular flights to Cusco.
Between Cusco and Aguas Calientes (hot waters) – we chose PeruRail,
which I would recommend. Well-organized, on-time, and professional.
Do note that during the rainy season months of January to April, travel is
bimodal, which means part of the way is by bus, and the other half by
rail.
For hotels, Delta and Starwood Group have a crossover reward
partnership so I tried booking all accommodations from the Delta.com site.
I would not recommend doing so and will not do so again myself.
Delta outsources accommodation arrangements to a third party agent and
any changes or updates that you want to do is via this agent. Try calling
the hotel and they will not be able to locate your reservation by either the
confirmation or itinerary number you receive from this agent – you’ll have to
be located by your name. What's worse is that while the booking agent
says they don't charge for updates or cancellations and if there is any penalty
it’s from the hotel, SPG number and the hotel say they don't charge for changes
either. So I haven’t figured out the answer to the question - who's
penalizing me? I stepped into this mess when I tried to make changes
after finding that I wasn't getting the best rates by over $100 for two nights
from the Delta.com
site. I made Delta aware of the discrepancy of course, and while they try
to work this out with their travel agent, they gave me a small travel voucher
for the lousy experience. Good on them.
Lima
We took off from Midland on April 10, Friday, at about 10+AM in the
morning. By the time we reached Atlanta for our connecting flight to Lima, bad
weather rolled in and delayed our departure. Better on the ground wishing
we were in the air than the other way around – we finally took off about 2
hours late.
Landing in Lima at close to 2:00 AM, I had arranged for the hotel to
pick us up (100 soles ~ USD35) and was thankful I did. Similar to
airports in many developing cities, touting was how taxi drivers think they get
passengers. By the way, the taxis here don't use meters so you need to
know street rates for getting from place to place. A public taxi to our
hotel would have cost less than half of what hotel transfer costs.
We rode in silence - partly from being tired and partly because we
were so absorbed by what we were seeing. Houses, shops, dating couples and also
at about 3:00AM in the morning, cleaners clearing trash from the streets!
As we came to realize during the time we spent in Lima, the city is as free of litter as Singapore is!
We stayed at the Sheraton Lima Hotel & Convention Center near
downtown and were treated to a free upgrade to a Club Room. This means
free snacks and beverages in the Club Lounge. Woo hoo! The hotel
was hardly occupied...low season? Nuh-uh. Terrorist attacks in the early
to mid-2000s had emptied downtown of the rich, who moved a little south to the
Miraflores area. Downtown is now very local, houses government offices,
and save for some historical spots, not quite a draw.
After a down day resting and wandering around to get a sense of the
place, do people watching and trying local restaurants, we joined a day tour
conducted by Haku! Tours, a non-profit outfit
that donates its takings to helping shantytowns, where about 80% of Lima
lives.
There's a lot to see around Lima but the historical highlights
were mainly downtown and we had already walked past most of them on day 1.
The highlight for me was a visit to the catacombs beneath one of the cathedrals
where we met a lot of skeletons…not fake tourist displays type, but remains of
people from long ago. It was a
brutal/cultural part of Peru’s history.
However, I was very uncomfortable because my grandma ingrained in me the
need to be very respectful of other worlds and it just didn’t feel right to be
potentially walking on remains and gawking at those already exposed by
conservation works.
 |
| Statue of Liberty gone wrong... |
Before joining this day tour, we had been puzzled by several European
style buildings/facades in the downtown area, and the guide explained that in
the 1920s, Peru wanted to show its strength to the United States and the
government commissioned a lot of the buildings and architecture, including a
statue of liberty gone horribly wrong…
Look at the statue of the lady beneath that of General José de San
Martín Plaza San Martin. She was
supposed to be a replica of the Statue of Liberty. However, instead of having one arm raised,
two were raised. Instead of carrying a
lamp (lámpara) in one hand, she has a llama on her head. Instead of wreaths on her head, her raised
hands are carrying a branch each…madre mia….
For lunch, we were taken to a local market, Mercado No. 1, that has
Peruvian food stalls on Sundays only. It was so local we loved it! The
food was homecooked and gut-warming. And look at what they use to keep food
warm! Clay pots with faces!
Following lunch, we took a tour of Pachacamac, the second most
important Incan temple in the region, and learned about virgin sacrifices and
sun gods and reincarnation and burial and the marauding Spaniards and all the
awesome history stuff. The history bit was repeated throughout the next few
days which was good.
Having forgotten how hot the sun can get, we were burnt! Don’t
forget to bring sun block!! And big hats!
We circled back to Lima on the last day to catch our return flight
back to the United States. I had set us up for a tasting menu lunch at
Astrid & Gaston, a top flight cutting edge restaurant that is booked out
months ahead. Unfortunately, flight cancellations and delays from Cusco
meant we landed in Lima only at 1:45PM and I had to cancel our 1:30PM
reservation as a result. Nothing was available for dinner, and we were by
then tired and not feeling our best from altitude sickness, so we were happy to
just rest in our day use room in the Sheraton Lima, and have another meal at
Norky’s (it’s like Kenny Rogers Restaurant but the roast chicken and other
meats are way better!!) at the mall next door.
Machu Picchu
Picture postcard perfection. The day we visited Machu Picchu, we
were blessed with beautiful weather – a clear blue sky – and relief from
stomach cramps and upsets as the altitude was lower than in Cusco, where we had
spent a night. It seems there is often rain and fog on the mountains so
we were very lucky indeed. Imagine if you arrived in Machu Picchu after a
4-day hike and the whole place is muggy and foggy. We had planned a back-up half-day in case it
rained as it’s not very safe to be clambering around the archaeological site
when it’s storming.
We were all over the site – and even ventured about a third of the way
towards the sun gate, where Incan trail hikers enter the site from.
Machu Picchu was built in 1450, abandoned a 100 years later during the
Spanish conquest, and not discovered until an accidental forest fire exposed
the site in the early 1900s. As the Conquistadors were destroying temples
and other buildings it came across, it was fortunate that not many among the
Incans themselves were aware of the location of this city.
Its discovery was made public in 1911 by an American named Hiram
Bingham, who embellished his story and the find in a National Geographic
article of that time. There are many theories as to what the site is for,
and the most supported theory is that it was primarily a retreat/resort for the
Incan King.
What’s amazing about the entire site is how well-planned it is – Incan
architecture is solid – but I think we often underestimate the brilliance and
capability of the ancients:
- The site’s irrigations system is very thought-through – drainage that brings water to the community and water away from the farming terraces have kept the entire construction in place for over 500 years. The site is currently sinking only because of blasting works from hydro plants nearby.
- The terrace system for farming – that filtration system (top soil, sand, small stones, bigger rocks) continues to be used today. If you’ve been to other farming archaeological sites, you might realize that the system is not dissimilar in other geographies. Some crazy questions started popping in my mind when I tried to comprehend that. No Google, no mail or email system for pen pals, why and how do civilizations show so much similarities in their evolution? Ok – this knowledge might already be out there and I’m being inexcusably ignorant. Do me a favor and send me a link to this question if you already have it. I’ll add it to my “de-ignoranting” list.
- The location of the site – with onsite granite quarry, great water source, and excellent fengshui location. There are four mountains in the north-south-east-west directions and where they intersect at the Machu Picchu site, there is a sundial.
- The sun gate and the sun dial – positioned for when the sun shines on the longest and shortest day of the year.
Actually, Machu Picchu isn’t the name of the site. It is the
name of the mountain that is next to the site. No one knows the Incan
name of the site – and more accurately, it should be called “Ciudad de Machu
Picchu”, or city of Machu Picchu.
While the site is very well maintained by UNESCO, it is important to
respect the rules and the mountains. While we were there, someone fell
from hiking Huayna Picchu, a smaller mountain accessed from the Machu Picchu
site, and had to be air-evacuated from the mountains. We don’t know what
happened, but it seems he/she tried to overtake someone on a one-person-one-way
trail and fell over the cliff.
Cusco
The ancient capital of the Incan empire, Cusco city, is beautiful even
today. However, what visitors typically
see is the inner city and its layout is in the shape of a puma. Because we took the bus from Cusco part of
the way to Machu Picchu, we were able to have a look at the outskirts where the
locals live…and where locals advised us were not saved, even for them.
Cusco was a one-night stopover so we could catch the early train to
Machu Picchu. On our return from Machu
Picchu, we spent two nights here and was able to take a day tour of the Sacred
Valley and surrounds from here.
By this time, everything felt a little anti-climatic and
more-of-the-same, at least for me. We
visited Pisac, Ollantaytambo, and Chincero – all important archaeological sites
in their own right, with their own very interesting stories and legends. The highlight of the day was therefore
something different – a visit to a very small animal sanctuary, where we came
up very close to condors!
In the Incan culture, condors rule the sky, pumas rule the land, and
snakes rule the underworld. Snakes are
not thought of as evil, by the way, but as wise.
In the evening, we explored the streets and alleyways near our
hotel. It was hard to see where the
shops were because the shops start at the doors, which were flushed against
very long walls. So you’ll see long
stretches of walls, then a door and some items hanging on the door frame, and
only discover what the shops sell when you get right to the front of the
door.
Altitude Sickness
Headaches aren’t the only symptom and it didn’t bother us much but we
discovered to our horror how bad stomach cramps, diarrhea and insomnia can
get… The locals gave us moña (monya), or local mint tea, which helped
provided some relief. We used up our supply of Imodium/loperamide between
us, and fortunately, my command of Spanish was good enough to get us more supplies
from the local pharmacy.
The other local remedy is to drink coca tea at least two days before
you travel to high altitude area. It’s strong so it’s not a good idea to
drink once you start getting stomach issues. Coca tea is supposed to
increase the red cells in your body that oxygenates you. Coca leaves is
also a raw ingredient in making cocaine…
The next time we head to a high altitude area, we’re visiting the
doctor, and getting some medication!
People We Met
I’m more of a sociologist/anthropologist at heart and was more
interested in the lives of the people and locals we met. Once I got the guides to warm up to us, I was
really delighted and humbled to hear some very personal stories about their
lives, worries, hopes and dreams.
They are generally very hopeful of the future, of better lives. Our guide Henry in Cusco is extremely proud
of the fact that he now owns his home versus having to rent. He has a heavy bank loan to pay off, and he
works very hard to make payment (USD800) every month. He’s told his wife that he’s very contented
to just drink soup every meal so he can make their home ownership dream complete
in 3 years’ time. He has two daughters –
aged 6 and 10 – who are his pride and joy.
Similar to girls this age, his elder daughter is obsessed with
characters from Frozen, while his younger girl is in his words “the female
version of Dennis the Menace”.
Parting Thoughts
Pains and illnesses aside, this trip has been such a treat. It's a bucket list item - for many people too - and it takes some planning, saving, and effort to get to. More than the mountains, more than the food, and more than any part of the whole, I came away with an appreciation for the country and its spirit that only travel and being in the place can give you. I'm glad Peru was our first Latin American country. I'm looking forward to more.
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